Friday, 20 September 2013

Patchwork Meadow

The Patchwork Meadow project is a public
participation artwork involving miniature works of wild flower inspired
art, using embroidery, beadwork and applique. People were asked to contribute a 15cm fabric square along
with the story of why it was chosen. To date there have been over 800
contributions in the UK and almost two thousand entries from Bulgaria,
Croatia, Romania and Slovenia.

Almost 400 squares (mostly from the UK) are on display at the Gallery of
the John Hope Visitor Centre of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. I was amazed by the sheer variety and beauty of the squares, which demostrate the diversity of our plant life, the wealth of folklore that attaches to these plants and the amazing craft skills of people across these European countries. You can browse the squares at Wildflower Europe.

The
exhibition is free and continues until Monday - so if you're in Edinburgh this weekend why not pop along! The exhibition will later tour the UK, including London, Salisbury and Bangor. (Dates to be confirmed)

The project is open for contributions until January 2014. I have to say that seeing the exhibition today both inspired me (because there are so many amazing squares) but also made me feel that I wouldn't be able to create anything good enough, but still, I'll certainly try!